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“Yes, But Can We Read this Aloud in Church?
Dear Family and Friends,
As our Aruamu Bible Translation team (Papua New Guinea) has worked our way through the text of scripture, our goal has been to see the Aruamu scriptures IN USE by growing Christians in the Aruamu people group. We are giving every effort to ensure that the end product is ACCURATE, CLEAR, NATURAL, and IMPACTFUL for Aruamus.
As you know, in the Bible there are a number of sections which contain delicate topics, raw and real descriptions of the human, fallen condition. Some sections contain sexually explicit verbiage. Some stories have graphic content. Some prophets used really risqué metaphors to underscore their points. So, as we have worked on checking Aruamu scripture, after we have reached the point that the meaning is rendered well, we have often asked the question, “Yes, but can we really read that aloud in church?” We definitely require that the underlying meaning is very clear. But we give much effort to expressing the meaning in ways that will be appropriate when Aruamus hear that section of scripture read in church, or on a cell phone. Usually we find that there a LOT of ways to say a thing!
So when we have translated the Song of Solomon, or worked through how to render “circumcision,” or “eunuch,” we have carefully searched for appropriate ways to talk about those things in Aruamu so that the text can be read in mixed company, and be culturally appropriate. Aruamus have what they call “on-top-going-talk,” or metaphorical ways to express a thing, so that the meaning is clear, but the wording can be said publicly.
This last month we have been focusing on checking the book of Leviticus. Wow! Have you read through Leviticus lately? That book has some VERY explicit sections, especially those that talk about regulations regarding ritual uncleanness for various reasons – men’s semen emissions, women’s periods, childbirth uncleanness, people having open, weeping sores with pus, and some uncleanness which evidently was referring to STD.
We have FAILED to come up with a way to articulate those sections so that they can be read aloud in Aruamu mixed company. So, after prayerfully and carefully considering our choices, we decided that, for those chapters, we would abandon the requirement that the language be conducive to oral reading in church. (I honestly think this will be fine. In all my 65 years on the earth, hearing sermons and Bible studies, I have NEVER heard a sermon on those chapters! Have you?) The Aruamu translators are saying that they will need to read those sections aloud with just men, or just women present.
We completed our checking of Leviticus this last month, and by next week we will PDF it and send it over to Papua New Guinea for the Aruamu comprehension checking teams to check it with various groups of people out in the villages.
Thank you SO much for your prayers as we work! We have started on the exegetical check of Deuteronomy.
For Kingdom Expansion,
Marsha Relyea Miles
(for our entire Aruamu Translation Team) |
